DRAWING ONLINE

Do you wish to learn how to draw?

Do you have a desire to draw and capture a likeness of the subject at hand? Learning drawing online is a convenient means in which to learn and improve your art skills, and this free guide will teach you just that. Learn the basics of drawing from the most basic steps of sharpening and holding a pencil, to creating simple doodles before mastering basic shape, form, light, shade and shadow. Learn to draw people, sketch faces, master perspective, create landsacpes and works of fantasy and develop shading techniques. For artists who already have a fundamental grasp of drawing, there are also intermediate and advanced art lessons available, complete with video, animation and step-by-step illustrations and instruction. Learn to draw at your own pace, and should you wish to continue your education, there are plenty more quality free art lessons available on this website - just visit our art lessons section.

Introduction to drawing online

BEGINNER ART LESSONS - DRAWING ONLINE

The Beginner - surely the most demanding and yet exciting of stages for all future artists. Ahead lies a labyrinth of tools, mediums and techniques, leading to another doorway for self-expression, and yet it is also a place where a person can easily find themselves lost and disorientated. Innate talent will only get you so far, and is by no means a prerequisite - regular practice and discipline will carry you through quagmires and unexplored chambers, and whilst no-one may truly escape the labyrinth, it ultimately becomes more familiar and homely.

Perhaps a concert pianist needs to master their skill from an early age, but there is no such barrier in art. Art is about learning to see the world, and in the process, realising just how conceptualised and subjective our interpretations can be. All that is required is that frustrations are seen as experience, and if perseverance and motivation can be maintained, you will be guaranteed to improve your drawing skills with every passing month.

How to Sharpen and Hold a Pencil

Different methods for sharpening your pencils, and a look into some of the different ways of how to hold a pencil, including overhand and underhand grips.

Learn how to sharpen a pencil

Negative Space

Negative space is a crucial tool in which to master the art of seeing and improve spatial relationships, hence resulting in better proportioned drawings.

Negative space and drawing

Still Life - Apple Sketches

Applying a basic knowledge of form to draw an apple in two states. How to create a quick and simple sketch, working from life.

Drawing from Photographs

A look into the benefits and disadvantages of photographs, with comparisons made against drawing from life.

3D Form and Modeling

Creating three-dimensional forms on a two dimensional surface.

Portrait Sketching Demo

Producing quick portrait sketches in graphite.

INTERMEDIATE LESSONS

Although I would much prefer to avoid using labels, "intermediate", in terms of this guide, might refer to a reasonable proficiency in basic drawing skills - an ability to see relationships, an understanding of values and form, a reasonable ability to place lines more less where you would like them, with which comes the experience of having tried dozens of drawings, and having many failed attempts.
All this may seem like a large step from beginner, though if you are a beginner, by all means read all the sections and try your hand at the demos - even if you are disatisfied by the results there is nothing at all to be lost in trying.

The three main demonstrations with videos focus on charcoal/white pastel on toned paper, watercolour and graphite, alongside a few of the additional tools that can make the mediums easier to handle.

Recognizing Where Things go Wrong

Pre and Post-Emptive measures to fix and avoid mistakes made in drawing.

Charcoal Demo

How to use charcoal and white pastel to create some relatively fast studies in texture and contrast, with this demonstration of an alligator drawing.

Watercolour Portrait Sketching

Monochromatic portrait sketch with Sepia watercolour.

Fantasy Graphite Landscape

A fantasy graphite landscape scene, based on photographic reference sources.

ADVANCED LESSONS

Whereas the gap between beginner and intermediate was much more pronounced, that between intermediate and advance is much less so, and so generally denotes a greater level of refinement or a slightly more challenging medium/technique, though I do not wish to suggest that a drawing that has had more time put into it makes for a better piece of artwork than something produced in a much shorter span of time.

In this section the three main demonstrations focus on a fairly tightly rendered cloud landscape in graphite, a pen and ink/ink wash depiction of the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, and a charcoal/white pastel (using a brush) rendition of a painting by German Romantic, Caspar David Friedrich.

Charcoal with Brush Technique

A reproduction of the painting - Wanderer Above a Sea of Mist - by the German Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich, using Charcoal and White Pastel with a brush.

Pen and Ink

Using a traditional pen holder and nib, alongside ink washes to draw/paint the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.